In Yiddish -- and in Hollywood -- a mensch is a highly-regarded person of decency and honor. And two-time Academy Award-winning producer and Auschwitz survivor Branko Lustig (Schindler's List, Gladiator) certainly fits that bill. This International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony pays tribute to Lustig with the 2013 Mensch For All Seasons Award. Along with film clips and remarks by him, the event is set to feature several other speakers, including Dr. Judea Pearl of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, Dr. Michael Berenbaum of American Jewish University, the Austrian and German Consul Generals of Los Angeles, and Mensch Foundation International founder Steven A. Geiger.

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Branko Lustig**, Oscar-winning Producer of Schindler’s List, is a prominent Croatian film producer. He is the only person born in Croatia (at the time, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) to have won two Academy Awards. His credits also include American Gangster, Kingdom of Heaven, Black Hawk Down, Hannibal, Drug Wars: The Camarena Story and War and Remembrance.

Dr. Michael Berenbaum, Holocaust Scholar and Professor at the American Jewish University. Dr. Berenbaum is an American scholar, professor, rabbi, writer, and filmmaker, who specializes in the study of the memorializing of the Holocaust.

Dr. Judea Pearl, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and President of the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

Dr. Stanley Goldman, Professor of Law and Genocide Studies at Loyola Law School. While attending Loyola Law School, Stanley Goldman was executive editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review. Goldman joined the Loyola faculty after serving as a Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender. His scholarship is principally in the area of criminal procedure, evidence, and Genocide studies. He is also a Bar review lecturer in Ethics, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence and Trusts and Wills. He will present the fascinating story “The Jew who met Himmler.”

Rabbi David Baron, Temple of the Arts. Rabbi Baron is the Rabbi of the largest arts and entertainment industry temple in the United States, where his services and inspirational sermons have been broadcast on national television and webcast internationally to US troops overseas.

Dr. Karin Proidl, Austrian Consul General in Los Angeles. Dr. Proidl earned a Doctor’s degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna and a Diplome d’ Etudes Approfondies (D.E.A.) in International Law and Law of the International Organizations from the University Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne. She served in Tel Aviv as Deputy of the Mission at the Austrian Embassy.

Dr. Bernd Fischer, German Consul General in Los Angeles. Dr. Fischer holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from Heidelberg University and most recently served as German Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia. He has been head of the German Consulate General in Los Angeles since July 10, 2012.

Steven A. Geiger, Founder of the Mensch Foundation International: “About 80 members of my immediate family were gassed and cremated in Auschwitz. My father was in Mauthausen and barely survived at 80 pounds when liberated by the U.S. Army in May of 1945. We escaped from Hungary in 1956 right after the Revolution. I personally witnessed atrocities during the revolution and heard the grumblings of resurgent anti-semitism. During the 1970s and 1980s I spent much time in Hungary gathering news about the communist regime and some of its repressive acts. In 2002 I started the Mensch Foundation as again the resurgence of anti-semitism showed its ugly head in Hungary.”

The Mensch International Foundation was founded in 2002 as an educational curriculum to stamp-out stereotyping and anti-Semitic racist thinking. The Foundation’s goal is to develop a tolerant order of social values, which respects minority rights and freedom of speech and worship. All proceeds from this event will be used to further Holocaust education and aiding needy Holocaust survivors living in Eastern Europe.